POP AND JAZZ GUIDE

By Robert Palmer

Published: June 5, 1987

Super African Festival 1, Beacon Theater, 74th and Broadway (496-7070). Lilting, deftly interlocked electric guitar riffs and hearty choral singing in thirds characterize the brand of African pop music that dominates Zaire. Tabu Ley Rochereau has been the style's most consistently successful singer for a decade or more, and recently a series of duet recordings with the sparkling young singer M'Bilia Bel have given his popularity an added boost. Together they should put on quite a show, and Mr. Rochereau's 20-piece band is one of Africa's best. Dallol, a reggae band from Ethiopia, and Djimo Kouyate, playing the 21 stringed kora harp-lute of Senegal, are also on the program, which begins Saturday at 8 P.M. Tickets are $18 in advance, from the Beacon Theater box office, Ticketron (399-4444), and Teletron (947-5850); they will be $20 at the door.

Cecil Taylor and Paquito D'Rivera, Arts for Living Center, Henry Street Settlement Playhouse, 466 Grand Street (598-0400). Mr. Taylor's recent solo album ''For Olim'' captures the generous spirit that has made his recent unaccompanied playing so satisfying. He is performing solo, and with a few guests, tonight at 7 P.M. Tomorrow night at the same time, the splendid Cuban saxophonist Paquito D'Rivera, who has also been making jaunty music on the clarinet, will lead his Latin-jazz quintet. Admission for each event is $8, $4 for students and the elderly.

The Group, Carlos 1, 432 Avenue of the Americas, near Ninth Street (982-3260). Marion Brown, a saxophonist; Andrew Cyrille, a drummer, and Sirone, a bassist, helped define the new jazz of the 60's, on their own and as accomplices of John Coltrane and Cecil Taylor. The Group's trumpeter, Ahmed Abdullah, and its violinist, Billy Bang, first made their mark in the 70's. Working together, these five musicians have been supplementing their strength as soloists with an increasingly personal ensemble sound and stance. They are at Carlos 1 tonight through Sunday, at around 9:30 and 11:30 P.M., with a late show at 1 A.M. Saturday and Sunday. The cover charge is $10, with a $7 minimum.

Rock Album of the Week: ''The History of Rock Instrumentals,'' Volumes 1 and 2 (Rhino). Instrumental rock-and-roll flourished in the late 1950's and early 60's, not just as a novelty, or as a subgenre rife with innovation, but as a commercial proposition, too. Link Wray's ''Rumble'' and Lonnie Mack's ''Memphis'' are stirring electric guitar workouts that still sound fresh; Jack Nitzsche's ''The Lonely Surfer'' and ''Nut Rocker'' by B. Bumble and the Stingers, with their melodic overkill and generous helpings of pseudo-classical kitsch, sound more like period pieces. But all four of these records were major hits between 1958 and 1963, and all of them are on Rhino's new two-volume history of some of rock's most spine-tingling, and trashiest, epiphanies. Most of the trash is on Volume 1, while Mr. Wray, Mr. Mack, Duane Eddy, and other kings of guitar reverb dominate Volume 2. Both volumes have cheesy organ and surf-music twang aplenty; both are good listening, and great fun.